1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to alight emitting diode (LED) driving apparatus capable of preventing a lifespan of an LED from being shortened, and an LED driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An LED is a semiconductor device which is formed to have a p-n junction structure and emits light according to electron hole recombination and is applied in various fields in line with recent advancements in semiconductor technology. In particular, since an LED has high efficiency and a long lifespan and is environmentally friendly, compared with existing light emitting devices, it may be applied to many fields
In general, in terms of its structure, an LED can be driven by applying DC power of a few volts thereto, and thus, in general, in order to drive an LED with commercial AC power used in households, offices, or the like, a specific unit of transforming power is required. In order to drive an LED with commercial AC power, an LED driving apparatus typically includes a rectifying circuit, an AC-DC converter, or the like.
However, a general AC-DC converter is voluminous and consumes a great amount of power, so the application of the general AC-DC converter to the LED driving apparatus severely counteracts the advantages of the LED such as high efficiency, small package size, long life span, and the like. Also, a capacitor connected to an output terminal in order to remove a ripple component included in an input signal converted from AC to DC to drive the LED, shortens the lifespan of the LED.